To say it's been busy the past 2 weeks is a slight understatement. In a nutshell, we've been swamped! The rental market in North Idaho right now is a crazy place to be. Properties are renting faster than we can get them cleaned and turned over from one tenant to another. Every so often there is a strange one that takes longer to rent, but this is certainly not the norm.
Real estate in Kootenai County has been very very interesting. For one, the lending market is just crazy. For all of the traditional buyers with decent credit scores and at least 3% down, you won't have any major issues. What you will see is underwriters requiring insane amounts of documentation from you. For investors, you'll need pretty much at least 10% down with a solid credit score and you are good to go (full docs of course).
Buyers have jumped back into the fray. We are seeing this in a number of areas. One area is the amazing jump in inquiries just on our listings. Another is the amount of offers coming in, most are very solid with fast closes. Also, buyers are out looking. The past 2 weekends was the Parade of Homes and there were literally thousands of people going through the model homes. The perception is that the parade was much more active this year then the past couple of years.
And finally, sellers are coming around to the reality of the market. No, they aren't accepting some of the ridiculous low balling that some so called buyers have tried, but they are back to reality. They know that their plans and goals need to be achieved and they are realizing that "carrying costs" are just as important as the price that the home sells for. We've had a big increase in the number of owners contacting us to sell their property. True sellers - serious sellers. People not just "testing" the marketing.
In my opinion, real estate is looking strong and healthy in North Idaho. People are beginning to understand that Coeur d'Alene is alive and kicking and life goes on. No, we aren't likely to see 30% appreciation again anytime soon, but we are a solid market, with strong appreciation. It's a dream to live here. People want to live here. Companies want to move here.
We are growing and thriving and life is good! Oh, and we've added another wonderful Buyer's Specialist whom I will introduce in another post later this week.
It never ceases to amaze me... fellow colleagues in my own North Idaho market keep sending out the following requests:
Now that I've told you the absurdity of what people think lease options are, let's go into what lease options truly are. 
